The most celebrated painter of the Sienese
School of painting, and one of the most famous medieval
artists of the Italian trecento,
Duccio di Buoninsegna is to Siena what Giotto is to Florence, except that
his painting doesn't quite have the degree of naturalism that makes Giotto
such a revolutionary artist. Instead, Duccio infuses the austere beauty
of traditional Byzantine art
with a new lyricism, as well as some of the new humanity being propagated
by the new Franciscan and Dominican orders. Working with pigment and egg
tempera, he produced mainly religious
paintings with unique vividness. His exquisite colouring, use of gold
decoration, and fine drawing skills contributed to the emergence of International
Gothic style and set the standard in Siena and beyond. He is best
known for the Maesta
Altarpiece (1311), a masterpiece of Gothic-style Christian
art commissioned by Siena Cathedral, and the Rucellai Madonna
(1285, Uffizi, Florence). In 2004, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York City purchased his panel painting the Stroganoff
Madonna and Child (c.1300) (Stoclet Madonna), for an estimated
$45 million. Along with Cimabue (c.1240-1302)
and Giotto (1270-1337), Duccio di Buoninsegna
remains one of the most influential figures of Pre-Renaissance
Painting (c.1300-1400).

COLOURS USED IN
PAINTING
For an idea of the pigments
used by Duccio di Buoninsegna
in his colour painting,
see: Renaissance
Colour Palette.

Information about Duccio's life derives
entirely from documents relating to his activity as a painter, a property
owner, a citizen, and fines for misdemeanors. For instance, in 1279 and
1302 he was fined for trespassing. He was also fined for his refusal to
complete his army service, and also, supposedly for sorcery! If we have
no idea how he learned the art of painting,
or who he trained under, we do know that he acquired a range of artistic
skills. His early works include the decoration of the account books of
the Sienese government, and the design of the huge stained glass window
(128788) in the apse of the Cathedral of Siena. Later, he painted
numerous examples of altarpiece
art and small wooden panels for private devotion.

Duccio's Famous
Paintings

His first known painting commission was
the Crevole Madonna (1280, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena).
This was followed in 1285 by a commission for the enormous panel of the
Madonna and Child with angels - now known as the Rucellai Madonna
- for the Florentine church of Santa Maria Novella, (Galleria degli Uffizi,
Florence). After this it is believed he visited France. In 1296 and 1297,
the presence of a 'Duche de Siene' is listed in Paris, which perhaps explains
the increasing Gothic influence in his work. About 1300, he completed
the Madonna and Child which now rests in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, before receiving in 1308 the most important commission of his
career - the contract for the huge Maesta for the High Altar of
Siena Cathedral. Comparable with Giotto's fresco cycle in the Scrovegni
Chapel in Padua, the completed 25 square-metre altarpiece was carried
in public procession from Duccio's workshop to the Cathedral.

The Maesta for
Siena Cathedral

The core of the Maesta - meaning,
the Enthroned Madonna and Child surrounded by Saints and Angels - occupied
the main panel facing the congregation. Above and below the Madonna were
smaller panels (predella panels) painted with images of the Life of Christ
and the Virgin, along with small figures of Saints. Most of these panels
would have been visible only to the priest. The reverse of the main panel
featured twenty-six scenes from the Passion, while above and below were
smaller panels showing scenes from the Life of Christ. The work comprises
a total of 84 panels. Although the altarpiece was dismantled in 1711,
most of the panels remain in the cathedral museum (Siena Museo dell'Opera
del Duomo).

Some of Duccio's inspiration for the Maesta
and other works of the time may have come from his trip to France (1296-7).
But art scholars consider the main impetus to stem from a visit to Assisi,
where Duccio is believed to have studied the fresco cycle of the life
of Saint Francis, painted by Giotto and his helpers. It is now known that
this famous series of fresco wall paintings was finished before 129596.
Duccio employs some of Giotto's devices in his own works, and sets his
scenes within a human context rather than one based on codified types
as exemplified by Byzantine art, but his approach is more lyrical, decorative
and colour-oriented than naturalistic.

Even so, Duccio's style was profoundly
innovative for the time. He employed greater characterization in his figures
and demonstrated a new mastery of narrative, almost on a par with Giotto.
In the works of both these great Gothic painters, religious subjects are
shown in terms of human experience, thereby marking a revolutionary moment
in the history of art.

Stroganoff
Madonna and Child Controversy

Although familiar to art experts from photographs,
the small devotional painting known as The Stroganoff Madonna and Child
(c.1300) - purchased by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art - had not
previously been on public display for more than half a century. In 2006,
James Beck, a scholar at Columbia University, gave his opinion that the
painting was a 19th-century forgery. This completely contradicts the view
of the Met's curator of European Paintings. The celebrated British scholar
John White, working from photographs of the Madonna, characterized the
picture as being the first in a long line of Italian Madonnas with a parapet,
which attained its zenith some 200 years later, in Giovanni Bellini's
magnificent variations on the same theme.

Collections

No more than a dozen independent works
attributed to Duccio di Buoninsegna have survived. They, along with fragments
from the Maesta, can be found some of the best
art museums in the world, including: The Met NY USA; Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston, USA; The Frick Collection, New York, USA; National Gallery,
London; the British Royal Art Collection; Museo dell'Opera Metropolitana,
Siena; Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena; Museo d'arte sacra della Val d'Arbia,
Buonconvento, near Siena; Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy; Odescalchi
Collection, Rome; Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia, Italy; Berne
Museum of Art, Switzerland.